iFixit’s Portable Soldering Iron Deserves a Space on Your Work Bench

The right-to-repair movement has a catchy name, but before you can worry about the right to repair, you need the ability to repair. If you don’t know how to take your device apart, there’s no sense worrying about whether it’s legal to do so. Without basic repair skills and a helping of innate curiosity, the right to repair is useless.
This is where iFixit’s new Hub Soldering Iron enters the fray. iFixit, a longtime supporter of the right to repair, has thousands of tutorials online to help you actually repair things. Now the company has made a soldering iron to help you roll up your sleeves and get into the physical world of repair.
I grew up around soldering. My father built his own tube-powered ham radio gear, but for whatever reason I never actually did any soldering until rather late in my repair life. An electrician friend of mine was appalled that I didn’t solder on a regular basis and gifted me a bare-bones soldering iron, which was all I had for an embarrassingly long time. Later I bought a Pinecil, mostly for the small, portable form factor, but that cheapo soldering iron was all I had for years.
While a cheap soldering iron is better than no soldering iron, I’ve come to think the reason many people are intimidated by soldering, or have problems when they first try it, is due to cheap soldering pens. Cheap tools are the source of many a problem, but with soldering irons the big one is that they don’t get hot enough, which makes the solder stick to the tip rather than flowing nicely where you want it. Cheap irons also lack interchangeable tips, which make soldering easier by fitting exactly where you want them to go.
iFixit, which made its name in the repair world creating guides, tutorials, and more all designed to help consumers be more than consumers, has launched a new store called the Fix Hub. The first product is a portable USB-C soldering iron.
iFixit’s new soldering iron is actually several products. The core is the Smart Soldering Iron for $80. It’s powered by USB-C and comes with a beveled, 1.5-mm tip. (There are six tips available, and iFixit plans to have more.) Then there’s the Portable Soldering Station for $250, which includes the iron and a battery pack designed for the iron. The final option is the Complete Toolkit for $300, which includes everything from the soldering station package, plus useful tools like wire strippers, flush cutters, solder, flux, a wire holder, cleaner, and more.
The thing that jumps out at you the most when first opening the kit is the magnetic cap. This is a thing of genius. It not only covers the tip, but you can put it on even when the tip is hot, and it will automatically power down to the idle temperature (which you can set in the app). Every soldering iron should have a cap like this. This feature alone makes iFixit’s soldering iron great for beginners. The cap also has a wire attachment that allows it to be mounted on the battery pack.
There are other user-friendly features, like an LED system that warns you when the iron is hot and motion sensors to detect when you set it down for a while (which cause it to automatically shut off). The motion sensors can also detect if you drop it and will shut it off automatically. I tested all three of these features, and they worked without issue.
Ergonomically, the iFixit soldering iron is comfortable to hold, and the triangular grip means it won’t go rolling around if you set it down for a second. The body is spare, with just a power button and a small LED ring that indicates when the iron is hot, cool, and heating. It‘s nitpicking, but sometimes I had to look closely to tell the difference between blue and purple when working outside in bright sunlight. I love the locking USB-C cable attachment at the top though, which ensures you won’t accidentally unplug it.
I didn’t have any board-based projects to test the iron with, but I soldered a few wires together to add XT60 plugs to some things, and I fixed a balance lead wire on a home-built lithium battery, which I’ve been avoiding because it felt like a job that was too delicate for my soldering iron.
In every case, what impressed me most was how fast the iron was ready to go. Remove the tip and it’s ready almost instantly (somewhere between 3 and 5 seconds in my testing).
My one gripe with what iFixit has created here is the soldering tips. They aren’t interchangeable with similar USB-C irons like the Miniware or open source Pinecil. The problem is that iFixit’s soldering iron is delivering 100 watts of power while others only manage 60 or 80. On one hand, it’s nice that this thing can deliver 100 watts, because it heats up faster and gets hotter. But it is disappointing not to be able to swap tips if you have a bunch from other irons. (Unlike traditional soldering iron tips, the USB-C–powered tips have the temperature sensor and heater core inside the actual tip). iFixit is selling additional tips for $20 each (which is cheaper than some competitors).
That said, the iron itself is great, and for $80 it’s much nicer than any other USB-C irons I’ve used. It also solves the short cord issue. Because USB-C irons draw very high wattage, I alway use brand-name cords rated for 100 watts. Unfortunately, you can’t really find these longer than about a meter. iFixit’s battery pack solves that problem. If you opt to get the 55-watt-hour battery combo kit, you’ve got a nice, truly portable soldering station. The battery pack has two USB-C outputs, which churn out 100 watts of power. The unit can also skip the battery and provide pass-through power if it’s plugged into a wall outlet.
The power pack is also where you can set the temperature of the iron with a good old-fashioned knob rather than the web interface. This design is probably going to be the main complaint about this iron from those with more soldering experience, namely that there’s no way to adjust temperature on the iron, like you can with the tiny, and popular, Pinecil.
I almost never adjust temperature on the fly. I set the temp for whatever solder I’m using and pretty much leave it there, so I found adjusting the temp through the web-based interface to be easy enough that it didn’t bother me. That said, it would be nice to be able to access this interface through the phone. At the moment, iFixit’s tool depends on the WebSerial protocol, which is supported only by the desktop version of Chromium browsers (Chrome, Edge, Vivaldi, etc). iFixit is working on a way to control it via your phone.
As you would expect, iFixit’s soldering iron is user-repairable. The company even includes a screwdriver and spudger tool to help you take it apart. I took apart both the iron and the battery pack and am happy to say it was incredibly simple; there are no weird glues or anything like that. It’s almost like the people who designed it had taken apart thousands of electronics and learned exactly what to do and what not to do.
What iFixit has made here is incredibly well-designed and goes a long way toward making soldering more approachable for newcomers, which is what iFixit CEO Kyle Weins tells WIRED was a big part of the project—demystifying soldering. To that end, I think this makes for a great way to get started soldering. It’s on the pricier side for the all-in-one combo package, but it’s all you’re ever likely to need, and it’s repairable. This is also just about the only soldering tool I’d be comfortable giving someone, should you have a repair enthusiast on your gift list.
You can preorder the iFixit soldering iron and toolkit today, and it will ship October 15.